


A Diagnosis

by crippledboyfriend



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Chronic Illness, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 02:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12267141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crippledboyfriend/pseuds/crippledboyfriend
Summary: Touko and Shigeru have saved up to get Takashi looked at since they've been worried about his health. Today's the big, stressful day to see the new specialist. If only Madara would've been allowed in to tell Takashi what's a yokai and what's just in his head...





	A Diagnosis

**Author's Note:**

> The non-con warning is just for a mention of Takashi being sexually abused in the past. It's nothing more extreme than canon.

“Takashi,” Shigeru gently woke up his nephew. “Takashi.”  
“Good morning, Uncle Shigeru,” Takashi said softly as he woke up, not feeling very rested. It was hard to sleep through yokai talking when even more anxious than usual.  
“It’s time to get up,” Shigeru helped support Takashi into a sitting position. “Need any help getting dressed?”  
“No,” Takashi shook his head and grabbed onto Shigeru as he stood.  
“Then I’ll wait for you downstairs. Remember, don’t drink anything and put on something that’s easy to get in and out of.”  
“Thank you,” Takashi said as he went to his closet for a button-up shirt, feeling fortunate that he didn’t feel like he needed to go through the embarrassment of needing helping in dressing himself for the day…yet. He trusted Shigeru and Touko now, but he hated having to let Shigeru help him finish up in the bath and get into his pajamas on the rougher nights. It was seeming like he was feeling too sick and stiff to live normally even more often as the weeks went by. All of Takashi’s body parts seemed to want to hurt him. He’d been missing more and more school, and was often unable to go out with the rest of his friends. It felt like everybody was growing up without him.  
“Are you sure I can’t come?” Madara asked as Takashi got dressed. “I want to see what happens.”  
“You’re not allowed to come,” insisted Takashi. “This is more serious than school. Someone might be allergic. This is a ‘no pets’ hospital.”  
“I think you picked the wrong hospital. That first one had dogs, and it was cheaper and closer.”  
“It doesn’t have the specialists I need,” said Takashi. “And this one is bigger. It has more machines so they can run tests. All the local hospital could find was that I’m anemic, and I’ve clearly got other bigger problems. I have to figure out what’s making me anemic if I want to get better.”  
Madara swore.  
“So serious today. It’s not gonna be that bad, kid. They’re all there to help you, unlike some of the yokai you get involved with.”  
After getting ready, Takashi struggled down the stairs. Touko watched, worried.  
“I hate these things,” Takashi complained in his head. “I’d go out so much more if I didn’t have to take them to get back in bed to rest.”  
Seeing the clean, scentless kitchen, Takashi asked,  
“You 2 ate breakfast…didn’t you?”  
“No, it just didn’t seem fair,” smiled Touko.  
“We didn’t want the kitchen to smell nice and make you hungry,” explained Shigeru. “Who knows how long you’ll have to wait.”  
“It’s only me that doesn’t have to eat,” Takashi said uncomfortably. “Don’t do that for me.”  
“It’s fine,” said Touko. “I have some rice crackers in my purse and lots of leftovers for when we get back.”  
“You should eat,” Takashi insisted. “It’s already too nice that you’re both coming…” He still felt guilty that Shigeru took off work.  
“Don’t worry about us,” said Shigeru. “We’re just worried about you.”  
Touko bent down and pet Madara’s head.  
“We’re going out, Nyanko-sensei. Take care of the house.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Takashi thought he saw a yokai in the doorway of the waiting room.  
“I wish Madara could’ve come to tell me what’s a yokai and what’s just in my head,” Takashi thought. “But if there was something really bad here, Shigeru might also react.”   
Takashi tried to relax. He refused to pay attention to anything unusual unless someone else pointed it out first.  
“Natsume Takashi?” called a nurse, and his family stood up with him. He had a hospital bracelet put around his wrist and was escorted to a small room to change into a gown. Touko and Shigeru turned around to give him a bit of privacy as he slowly dressed himself.  
“I’m ready,” Takashi promised.  
“Can you get comfortable up there?” asked Touko as he tried to situate himself up on the examining table.  
“Yes,” he said, not making eye contact. He was so nervous. The flimsy gown made him feel completely vulnerable.  
The nurse was back in soon.  
“I’m going to take your vitals,” she put a cuff around Takashi’s arm and a clip on his finger, and then took his temperature in his ear. “What are you here to see the doctor about?”  
“Takashi has anemia, pain, stiffness and fatigue. It seems to be getting worse and he’s needed to miss a lot of school,” Shigeru explained.  
“He catches everything that goes around,” Touko added. “And his fainting really worries me. We need a diagnosis.”  
Takashi kept feeling like he was seeing things out of the corner of his eye as the cuff squeezed his arm, and the nurse then removed it.  
“His vitals are normal,” she pointed out. “Takashi, are you having any pain right now?”  
“Yes,”  
“Where?”  
“Just…All over my body. In my muscles and joints.”  
“How would you rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10?” she asked. “Just the pain you’re feeling right now.”  
“Umm…” Takashi wasn’t sure what to say. It wasn’t that bad when he was still, and it could always be worse, but he still wanted her to understand he was in pain.  
“5…” Takashi decided, his eyes darting back behind for a second as he saw a shadowy figure.  
“I’ll send the doctor in to examine you,”  
Takashi nervously waited, trying to adjust his hospital gown to be a bit more modest.  
“Takashi, it’s alright,” said Shigeru, making his nephew immediately jolt to attention. “They’re supposed to be like that so the doctor can see you. You’re fine.”  
“Right…” Takashi crossed his legs and hoped that this would be over soon. Touko was clearly starting to notice how distracted he was.  
When the doctor came in, Shigeru and Touko bowed to her.  
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, immediately getting started and pushing open Takashi’s hospital gown to press her stethoscope up against his chest. Takashi recoiled a bit, but he fought his instincts so he could settle down and let her listen.  
“It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for seeing me today…” Takashi said as Shigeru moved to stand next to Takashi. He gave him a reassuring look.  
“Breathe normally,” the doctor instructed as she listened to different parts of his chest, and then moved to his back. “Alright, deep breaths now.” Takashi took a few deep breaths, so anxious that it was a bit difficult. He closed his eyes and tried to just be obedient until she listened to his chest again and pulled away.  
“No gastrointestinal issues, no skin problems or lumps, but clear fainting and anemia with the fatigue and pain?” She checked.  
“Yes…” answered Takashi, and she started to feel his neck.  
“Any problems with mobility?”  
“Yes,”  
“Oh?” she asked. “How active are you?”  
“Not very,” Takashi blushed and jumped a bit as the doctor reached through his gown to feel under his arms.  
“You’re alright,” Shigeru promised. “I’m right here.”  
“Excuse me,” Touko butted in. “Do you think you could give him more warning before you touch him? I tried to tell the receptionist that he’s easily startled from past sexual abuse.”  
“I’m sorry, I had no idea,” the doctor stopped touching Takashi. “With that information, I think it would be for the best if I examined his more sensitive areas, though, at the end of the exam.”  
“He’s had that done since he’s been safe with us,” Shigeru insisted. “Even if it he’s due for it, I want his other tests done first. I really don’t think any sensitive exams should be necessary today.”  
“Alright,” the doctor seemed a bit inconvenienced, which made Takashi uncomfortable, but he was glad that his aunt and uncle stood up for him.  
“What else didn’t get passed on to the doctor?” Takashi wondered, trying to rack his brain for other important details the doctor hadn’t discussed.  
“Has he gotten any mental help?” asked the doctor.  
“No,” Touko shook her head.  
“I think he should see a therapist. Stress can cause a lot of problems in the body. The trauma alone could create a lot of physical pain.”  
“There’s a bit of a family history,” Touko explained. “His grandmother has had the same symptoms. We want to look for bigger causes.”  
“I’ll still recommend a therapist. He should get started on antidepressants,” she turned to Takashi. “Do you have problems with anxiety or depression?”  
“I…um…” Takashi was unsure of what to say.  
“Of course I do,” Takashi thought. “But that’s not what I’m here for. I have a real health issue to diagnose.”   
“Sometimes,” Takashi decided. “But I don’t need to do any of that.”  
“Irritability? Issues with reality? Behavioural problems?” The doctor looked around the room, wanting someone to answer honestly.  
“I’ve been trying to cook right for his anemia, and we think that might be helping, but what we’d really like to focus on is what’s physically stopping him from being able to move around properly like a teenager should.” Touko said.  
“Walk to that wall and back,” the doctor instructed.  
“Um…” Takashi struggled to grab onto the edge of the patient table to get himself down with just one hand, and he wasn’t going to free up his other one. He needed it to keep his gown closed.  
Shigeru reached to help him down. The doctor nearly said something, but she was too late, so she just watched Takashi walk.  
“Do you help him frequently?” the doctor asked Shigeru.  
“Yes,” he nodded, moving in front of his nephew to cover him a bit as he got back on the table.  
“That’s not good,” she said. “What normal tasks can he not do on his own?”  
“He doesn’t always need help, but stairs have been getting difficult. Sometimes he just needs a bit of support to get where he needs to go, or to get up and down. I help him with bathing and dressing when he needs it, but it’s not a habit.”  
“Takashi, you need more exercise. That’s not good for a boy your age,” the doctor said. “How much sleep do you usually get?”  
“It depends,” Takashi wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m picky about sound and it’s hard to sleep when in pain, so I don’t get a lot of sleep at night.”  
“Okay. I’m going to print out a prescription for lab work and MRI’s. I’ll also refer the therapist to you. He needs to see one,”  
Takashi kept his mouth shut. He’d talk his aunt and uncle out of it later.

Wearing the hospital gown was humiliating, and Takashi knew he was walking impossibly slowly.  
“I feel completely weighted down…” Takashi’s head spun. “This hospital’s so big…”  
“Takashi, do you need to sit down?” asked Touko.  
“Yeah…” Takashi admitted.  
“There’s a bench over there,” Touko put her hand on her nephew’s back.  
Resting on the bench, Takashi nervously hoped to regain some strength. His legs ached, and if he passed out, he wouldn’t be able to keep his gown closed.  
“Are you feeling any better?” asked Shigeru. “Maybe I should go on ahead and tell them that you’re on your way.”  
“Okay,” Takashi avoided the question about how he was feeling. “Thank you, Uncle Shigeru.”  
Takashi tried to drown out all of the chatter he heard.  
Touko sat down next to Takashi and rubbed his back.  
“I’m sorry this isn’t going exactly how we expected,”  
“It’s not your fault,”  
“Please don’t be scared,” said Touko.  
“It’s hard not to be,” said Takashi. “Why do I have to wear this in front of everyone?”  
“They’d just make you change again when you got down there,” Touko tried to be soothing. “It’s supposed to be easier on you.”  
“I’m being treated like a crazy person,” Takashi said softly. “If they don’t believe me, how are they going to help me?”  
“Takashi, something should come up in the tests,” Touko assured him. “And they know that you’re anemic. That’s a clear physical problem.”  
“I’m wasting your money. You saved up for me and they think I’m just making this up and need anti-depressants to go to school. But this is exhausting and painful,”  
“I know this is disappointing,” Touko said. “I wish I knew what to tell them to make them understand our situation. I only told them what happened so they’d be cautious with you. I didn’t want you to get confused and think you were in any danger.”  
“I’m glad you told them,” said Takashi. “I was too ashamed to want to admit to it myself.”  
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Touko leaned into her nephew. “It’s not your fault.”  
“How do we know if they’re going to take blood for everything they should?” asked Takashi. “I don’t want this to be a waste if a doctor that believed me would check for more things. They seem dead set on me just making this up.”  
“They don’t think you’re just making it up,” said Touko. “They think that stress is exasperating something small and blowing it out of proportion.”  
“It’s not something small,” said Takashi. “I know I’ve lost my mind, too, but since Uncle Shigeru says my grandmother was sick like this and I really don’t want to be a burden —“  
“Takashi, we love taking care of you.”  
“I still want to be able to dress myself, and go to school and not be tired, and not have it hurt too much to go out to the woods with my friends. I’m always missing out. I’d love to know what’s wrong with me and get actual serious help. I’ll do a painful treatment if that’s what I need…I just don’t want to be marked a hypochondriac and sent away with anti-depressants,”  
Takashi saw a white beast with gnarly horns standing by a check-in desk. It stared at him with its beady eyes, but it didn’t move.  
Takashi almost didn’t notice when Shigeru came back, pushing a wheelchair.  
“Here, they leant us this,” he smiled and reached out his hand. “Do you need help?”  
“I-I don’t…need…” Takashi took Shigeru’s hand anyway as he stood up and transferred into the chair. He watched the yokai out of the corner of his eye as Shigeru pushed him down to the MRI machines.  
“Takashi, this will probably take a while,” Shigeru warned.

“Why don’t you lie down on the patient table and get comfortable?” suggested the nurse. Takashi cautiously looked at the huge machine the table pushed inside of before lying down.  
“You’ll need to be completely still. Just your breathing could make us have to redo the pictures,” the nurse explained. “Let me know if you get too hot or cold.”  
Takashi recoiled a bit as the nurse took his arm.  
“It’s easier if I put restraints on you,” she said. “That way you can’t move too much.”  
Touko and Shigeru looked a bit nervous, and Natsume didn’t know what to say. His heart pounded and he kept thinking about the yokai he saw earlier as the nurse prevented him from moving.  
“I’ll take your blood and start you on an IV with the same needle, alright?” the nurse showed Takashi her tools as she set up.  
“A-alright…” Takashi felt his face heat up in a nervous sweat, but there was nowhere to go to.  
“You should squeeze something,” the nurse looked to Touko. “Can you come over here and give him your hand?”  
Touko rushed over and took Takashi’s hand. The nurse tapped on Takashi’s vein and pierced him with the needle. From the other side, Shigeru reached to fix Takashi’s hair and told him to breathe.  
Takashi couldn’t believe how long it was taking. He gripped Touko’s hand tightly.  
“You had a lot of tests ordered…” the nurse commented as she switched to another vial.  
Takashi kept waiting, his arm throbbing.  
“All done,”  
He hadn’t even noticed. Thankfully, Touko kept holding his hand.  
“She’s going to give you a shot now,” said Shigeru.  
“It’ll go into your IV,” the nurse explained as she injected the medicine in. “You might get nauseous. If you need anything, we’ll have to redo the scan, but I can let you out at any time.”  
“Um, okay,” Takashi got even more nervous, wishing he had some sort of warning about this earlier. Touko gently patted Takashi’s hand before letting go, and he was pushed into the machine.

Sitting in the back of the cab, Takashi forced his stiff body to move up to Touko to whisper,  
“Aunt Touko? I’m going to throw up.”  
“Now?”  
“…soon,”   
“We’re almost home,”  
After a pause, Takashi asked,  
“What if I can’t make it?”  
His face was pale.  
“We could pull over?” Touko whispered back.  
Takashi swallowed uncomfortably, and then nodded.  
“Could you pull over?” Touko loudly requested, and the driver let them off at the side of the highway. He asked something, but Takashi couldn’t focus on anything but getting out of the cab. He knelt down on the grass and vomited out the IV as best as he could. He hoped that the snack he had on the way out of the hospital would help settle his stomach after not eating for so long, but it only made things worse. Saliva dribbled out of Takashi’s mouth and his body ached.  
Touko offered her nephew a tissue.  
“Do you feel better?”  
“Mmhm,” Takashi blushed and got back in the cab with her.  
The driver stopped talking to Shigeru and looked back at Takashi before driving the last of the stretch home.  
As the 3 got out of the cab, they noticed Takashi’s friends sitting down outside of their house. Nishimura stood up immediately and smiled. Kitamoto was clearly trying to be positive, too, but he looked worried.  
“How did it go?” asked Nishimura.  
“Takashi needs some rest and a meal,” Shigeru said, trying to send the friends on their way as he guided Takashi with his hand on his back.  
“Alright,” Nishimura nodded. “We just got the idea that if we stopped by, maybe we could cheer Takashi up by taking him to the woods.”  
“He’s been through a lot, boys.” Shigeru said firmly.  
Touko looked to Takashi, who softly suggested to his aunt,  
“Maybe they could come in for a little bit,”  
“Honey, maybe they could come in to eat with us,” Touko offered. “Just for a quick visit.”  
“We don’t have to,” Tanuma reassured them. “And we don’t need any food.”  
Shigeru thought for a bit, making sure that this was what Takashi really wanted before deciding,  
“Alright. Come on in,” as he unlocked the door.  
“You don’t look well,” Tanuma commented. “Did you have to fast?”  
“Yeah,” Takashi was relatively unexpressive.  
“You’ll feel better after you eat,” Kitamoto promised, reassuringly touching Takashi’s shoulder as he sat down at the table.  
Touko heated up leftovers from the night before and started to set out bowls.  
“I’ll make some soup, too,” she decided.  
“We don’t need anything,” Kitamoto told her, passing his bowl towards Takashi.   
Nishimura also nodded, despite having already eaten some meat.  
“Touko, come eat with us. You can make more in a bit,” suggested Shigeru. “Takashi probably doesn’t have a huge appetite, anyway.”  
“Ah, but maybe some soup would go down easier —“  
“Maybe later after this settles,” said Takashi, and the honest look in his eyes finally made her give up and sit down to eat.  
“I hope it’s not too much of a bother that my friends from school came.”  
“Did the doctor say anything?” asked Kitamato.  
Takashi finished chewing, unsure of what to say. Fortunately, Shigeru answered for him.  
“They’ll get back to us later,” Shigeru explained. “Takashi had a lot of tests done to rule things out.”  
“That sucks!” Nishimura exclaimed. He made Takashi jump a bit as he firmly squeezed his shoulder.  
“Did it hurt?” he asked.  
Tanuma gave a side-eye to Nishimura for asking the obvious, but he was oblivious as he waited for Takashi to admit,  
“Yeah,”  
“What all did they do?” asked Nishimura, and Kitamoto gently shoved him.  
“Let Takashi eat,” Kitamoto said, making everyone else smile. “He can vent to us later if he wants.”  
Madara slowly came up to the table and rubbed up against Touko’s legs in hopes of scraps.

Takashi accepted Tanuma’s hand on his back as they went up the stairs to his room.  
“This is really getting difficult for you, isn’t it?” Kitamoto frowned, watching with his hands in his pockets.  
“No, it’s just been a tough day,” Takashi tried to convince them.   
Nishimura raised an eyebrow before turning back into Takashi’s room.  
Gripping the windowsill to pull him down, Takashi sat up against the wall with a pillow crammed between it and his body. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing, but he was used to not having much.  
“We brought stuff,” said Kitamoto. “Feel like just opening the window and hoping for the best?”  
“Sure,” Takashi was so miserable that even if Touko or Shigeru confronted him, he was pretty sure that they’d understand. The other few times that they smoked inside, his caregivers didn’t even acknowledge it. Touko always acted pleased when Takashi had guests.  
Nishimura grinned and opened the window as Kitamoto dug inside of his backpack.  
“Well, this’ll make you feel better.” Nishimura patted Takashi on the shoulder as he sat down in a circle with him.  
Kitamoto opened up a tin of mints with a few joints inside of it, and Tanuma pulled his lighter out of his pocket.  
“You can start it,” Kitamoto gave Takashi a joint, and as he put it in his mouth, Nishimura stole the lighter Tanuma was trying to pass over to Takashi. A bit surprised at having it lit for him, Takashi gave a slight smile and Nishimura chuckled as Takashi took a hit and passed the joint over. He watched as Nishimura then put the joint between his lips.  
“So,” Tanuma started. “Nishimura thought it wouldn’t be too forward and weird to get Taki a gift.”  
“Oh, yeah, make fun of me for it.” Nishimura scoffed. “It not like it was that expensive,”  
As Tanuma smoked, Kitamoto said,  
“For her birthday, it wouldn’t be. Maybe you could get away with giving her something really cheap because you thought she’d like it, like a keychain, but you’re going to screw up your friendship and make the other girls jealous.”  
Nishimura took a floral hair clip out of a small box in his backpack. It was a fake, light purple lily pinned to a veil-like fabric.  
“But it isn’t pretty?” Nishimura asked.  
“If you’re really going to give her something nice like that, it’s best you say it was your cousin’s and she didn’t want it anymore so Taki doesn’t think you’re out blowing money on her.” said Tanuma.  
As the joint made it’s way back to Takashi, Nishimura stretched and said,  
“Well, I guess I need to do something else with it. Takashi, you like wearing things like this sometimes, right?”  
Takashi choked on the smoke.  
“Don’t think about it too hard,” said Tanuma. “I just mentioned to him how I knew you’d borrowed things like this before for a ceremony or something. Like that one picture of you in that nice yukata and mask.”  
“I-um—“ Takashi tried to pass the joint to Nishimura, who softly said,  
“Take another hit,”  
Takashi did, mostly so he didn’t have to say anything yet.  
“I don’t know, I guess I’d like it if another opportunity came up,” Takashi admitted. “You should try to return it.”  
“No, don’t worry about it,” Nishimura still refused to take the joint. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”  
“Very,” said Takashi.  
Nishimura reached to clip the accessory in Takashi’s hair, forcing him to quickly exhale smoke in surprise.  
“It looks great,” Nishimura promised, and this time Takashi made him take the joint from him.  
In a swift motion as he then gave it to Tanuma, Nishimura put his arm around Takashi’s neck.  
“Damn, you had to go through a lot today,” Nishimura explained. “You feeling any better yet? How long did you have to go without eating?”  
“Just since the night before,” said Takashi. “Eating did…make me feel a bit better.”  
“Let us know if we can do anything for you,” said Tanuma. “Here, smoke some more.”


End file.
